Today’s post will be looking at the wonders of “tilt-shift” photography and the brilliant effects that can be achieved by using this technique. The most common use of this technique is known as “miniature faking” and so will be the focus of this article!
Tilt-Shift miniature faking is a creative technique whereby a photograph of a life-size location or object is manipulated to give an optical illusion of a photograph of a miniature scale model.
Below are a few featured examples of “tilt-shift miniature faking” in action, you won’t believe your eyes!
A full size kids playground, visually tweaked into an ant's playground
Hard to see it as a 1:1 scale, full size and distant shot, isn’t it?
Altering the focus of the photography in Photoshop (or similar program) simulates the shallow depth of field normally encountered with macro lenses making the scene seem much smaller than it actually is.
A full size city street scene manipulated to look like children's toys
No matter how realistic it looks, tilt-shift images give off an overwhelming feeling of perspective and size. I would love to believe that someone had spent countless hours crafting miniature models to create a scene this intricate… But it’s just an average city scene!
In addition to focus manipulation, the tilt-shift photography effect is improved by increasing color saturation and contrast, to simulate the bright paint often found on scale models.
A huge arena, shrunk down to the size of a pea.
As demonstrated here, even a large scale arena can look like the size of a cereal box!
Tilt-Shift photography is all about changing the angle of the camera to give a different perspective and to make something look bigger or smaller. Like when you play poker and your chips are stacked and all lined up, from on top they don’t look like much but if you look from the bottom they could look huge.
Note the intricate architectural detail, this would take months to craft as a miniature!
Tilt shift miniature fakes are usually of a busy scene, to give the effect of a still landscape bustling with detail and life, but as shown above – a nice landscape photo or a skyline can still look fantastic.
Most faked tilt-shift photographs are taken from a high angle to further simulate the effect of looking down on a miniature. The technique is particularly effective on buildings, cars, trains and people.
If it still hasn’t settled in yet, here’s Father Ted Crilly with a simple lesson on perspective:
If you fancy having a pop at your own miniature fakes, here’s a link to an Online Tilt Shift Maker!
Until next time, don’t go shrinking on us!
The Picture Frames Express Team…
